So far I've got the wood and bridge ready to go, except I'm looking for a new top. I bought some curly Peruvian walnut, but it's not big enough for a carved top, which I've now decided is something I really want. So I'm going to find something else locally.

I've never worked with wenge before. Besides the obvious problems, that it's super heavy and it splinters something fierce, it also likes to move when cut. Apparently, the wood is loaded with tension. I'm pretty worried about it twisting on me, even as a 5-piece neck. I've read horror stories about Warwick bass necks twisting, even 5 and 7-pieces. I might invest in some of those carbon fiber rods stewmac sells for added insurance.

The bridge came out pretty good, except for one intonation screw hole, which is off by 1mm :wallbash:. I'm not very experienced with metal working, I didn't really expect the drill bit to skate like it did. I might make a new base plate later on if I have time, but this one should work just fine. I used some "Appliance Epoxy" paint on it, and baked it for an hour at 400 degrees after each coat. It seems like it's a very hard finish. I did 5 coats all together.

As for the intonation screws, that was an adventure trying to find something that would work. I ended up using M4 philips head screw and shaving down the head on a drill press to make them fit in the saddles. Then I painted and baked those.

Is this like one of those things where when you were on the bus kids would ask you weird wuestion and one meant you were gay or something but they'd never tell you what the question meant till you answered

Progress has been very slow lately. I've been super busy and spending all of my free time planning this build so I don't overlook something important and screw everything up. Also, the frets will likely be cut out on a CNC. I'm in a CNC class right now and I'm about to buy a fret slot bit and collet for it. This is the "easier" way to do it, but still very stressful to plan out.

So I made a new bridge plate because the other one was off. I forgot to take pics of it, but I will when i get a chance. This one came out wonderfully, and the plate protruding beyond the saddles on each side is about 3/16" less.

I got the headstock angle cut out and planed and the truss rod installed. I also made templates for the body, fretboard, and headstock. I think I'm going to do some sort of fancy overhang for the fretboard, since I don't have a neck pickup in the way.

Also, wenge is the devil. Heavy, very prone to massive movement when cut, splinters like mad on a planer and even a jointer, and the splinters I've had are like jamming sewing needles into my fingers. It's definitely not a preferred wood for me.

I build a jig for making a compound angle headstock. I wasn't happy with the idea of the end of the fretboard being 90 degress while the zero fret was fanned. Came out pretty good:

And I was paranoid about the wenge moving on me when I carve the neck, so I epoxied in 2 carbon fiber rods:

I wish I'd taken some pics of gluing the wings. I know a lot of people like to use a dowel or something to align the wings and neck, but I just clamped everything down to a polished marble slab and then clamped the wings to neck. This method is definitely worthy of consideration.

Top and body, ready for glue-up:

Gluing the top on(think I used enough clamps?):

After glue-up and routing sides:

And an idea for the carve. What do you guys think? It wouldn't be a contoured carve, just a straight angle:

care to give a bit more detail on that jig for the compound headstock angle?

and where did you get those bridge saddles from?

I actually ordered that particular set of graphtech saddles from an ebay seller, perfect pitch music. I think they charged me around $54 for all 7 of them, which wasn't a bad price at all.

As for the headstock jig, it's basically 2 sides that I cut to the headstock angle, 10°, but I moved one of them back a little to the second angle, 78°. I used a plunge router with a wide base for the planing. It's actually quite simple, you just have to make sure that the angle is set to the edges that the router will ride on. After all of that was done, I used a Safe-T planer to remove material from the back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeathByDestroyr

Looking quite nice so far. That ebony is simply breathtaking.

Nice shop as well!

Thanks! Unfortunately, the shop isn't mine, it's part of the wood working program at the local community college. It's an awesome shop and they have everything, but it gets pretty crowded during the week.